Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Surreal Real

 Over my many years, I have written many different blogs and books.  One of them, I recall, was called surreal real.  One of my primary driving things that has been consistent in all of my life has been the.. well.. absolute value .. to use a math term for a non math thing.. of being real.  Good, bad, left, right... whatever.  If it is real to you, it is valuable to me.  The blog was focused a lot on that, as I recall.  I would rather know someone that passionately disagreed with me than someone that agreed only because it was popular.  Trends do not grow me, but someone that passionately disagrees with me is... interesting.  Something is driving that passion, and that makes it worthwhile.

Why?  Because, I've lived the fictions.  I have seen and experienced and learned alot of the patterns of life that, despite the conviction that they are unique by those that do them, are centuries or millenia old and worn truths that often have to be lived rather than be learned by words.  I think we are in the middle of several of those, right now, in fact that I thing will end poorly but saying so will not change anything.  

Indeed... as I have aged, I have learned like most that age that very little changes.  It's funny.  When you are young, you are so offended and set afire by the wrongs that you see in society.  Then, later, you might end up taking an opposite position and being offended in another direction.  However, as you grow you eventually realize that they are the same debates and the same offensive feelings and convictions that have existed for thousands of years.  It's not important than it is happening, so much as important that we still have enough sense to say... what the actual fck, though it does seem that less and less of the younger generations have that sense.

"To thine own self be true," says a character to his son in Shakespeare's Hamlet in his final barrage of wisdom, before his son goes away.  It is good advice.  My life has seen so many changes, but the end is that we often end up back where we began...with ourselves as our final company even if you do everything right.  In my life, I have given up houses for weddings, moved across country for children or given up my money and time to shuttle people around to their needs or spend overtime hours for employers.  Yet, after all that time, I find myself... back with me as my company.  So, if there is anyone that deserves your loyalty, it is yourself.  When all is said and done, it is to yourself that you will answer above all else.

So, live your life, but live it for what you value to be important... including other people that you deem to be important but with the understanding that eventually they, too, will often leave.  Don't miss out on experiencing life, while you live.  I believe that you would give the same advice to your children, and if my children grow up as independent thinkers that can survive and thrive without me, I will have fulfilled my celestial duty to make them.... real.. as well.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Is It Live or Is It Memorex

 I'm sure that most reading this won't know what the subject line of the post means.  There was an ad a long time ago that asked, "Is it live or is it Memorex."  Memorex was a particularly popular brand of VHS and cassette tapes, and everyone knew of them, then... a sign of how things change.  They were advertising how real sounding something was.. it was almost like the real thing... almost.  But, it was a copy.  It wasn't live... it wasn't real.  It was a recording, which can have flaws.

Our memories are like that.  Today, I was reflecting on how a lot of my past relationships failed from an APPEARANCE or an ASSUMPTION of what I believed to be true, even if it wasn't in fact actually true.  I mourned over "losing" what had... in fact.. never existed.  If I looked for times that my ex's wrote romantic notes to me, I would have to look in vain.  If I tried to find the moments in my memory that had them coming up behind me to put their arms around me or say that they loved me, without my saying it first... I would be inventing some memories.  The reality is that what I mourned never really existed, and maybe THAT is what I was truly mourning.  They were just being the same person that I always had in front of me, even if I assumed something else to satisfy the imbalance of emotions shown.

It is so funny how we often imprison OURSELVES over things.  It is like Tate McRae's song, "Tear Myself Apart," where she talks about how we tend to criticize ourselves after something fails, even if it had nothing to do with us.  And, in the new book I am reading... Making Money by Terry Pratchett, I read, "..you get him to build his own rack, and let him turn the screws all by himself."  Very often, we are the only one judging ourselves for non existent wrongs, while the other person hasn't given a second thought to us.  Some say, "It is that it is," but we should also make sure "It was that it was," as well.

So, I do think that it is important for us, as we are making our foundation to rise from failures to fully understand what WAS failures and what was just incorrect matching and missteps and, after gaining our footing, rise in confidence of a future when we are in the right place and state of mind in the right time and connection of factors to make a successful opportunity appear in front of us.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Our Choices, Our lives

I want to bring together a few things I have said in the past to expand on what sounds like a pretty obvious point that is actually deeper and supernaturally true than it first appears.

I'll begin by talking about this week and today.  This week (and earlier actually) my deliveries and money has been working much better than usual.  Whereas I used to fight some days and barely make my budgets, it's like money is throwing itself at me.  The car is running great with very little issues, which I used to be facing.  My health has been going much easier with less pains and problems... I know some of that is because of the cholesterol med increase but stay with me.  It is like things are working out for me, really well... AFTER I decided to go back to the midwest.  I no longer need pressure to make me decide that.  Today, I decided to do something I would enjoy in this area, and LITERALLY as I was driving home to get ready for it, a shower popped up that wasn't on the radar and developed and expanded literally right on top of me, til I decided not to go to it and then the weather cleared.  While... at the same time... I got another increased tip where someone increased their tip by 10 dollars.  Recall that money is important to be able to move.  Yeah, it could be coincidence, but maybe it's supernatural science.  I'll explain.

What if our lives are not being either blessed or cursed in total but specific elements related to bad or good choices are being so?  I recall dating people.. and marrying some of them, actually... where it was a struggle the whole way.  And, the whole time I was with them, it was overcoming one disaster or challenge after another.  And, immediately upon leaving that connection, things improved, dramatically.  I have had ex friends that had the same effect, while I was connected to them that left or improved upon ending that connection.  You gotta ask... why would God.. or nature or the universe or whatever you want to use.. do this?  I think science.  You put a mouse in a maze and want it to go in a specific path, so what do you do?  You provide rewards for the right choices and you make it very uncomfortable in the bad ones.  What if we are being directed in much the same way?  I've already made that point about the last year's almost supernatural pitfalls and dangers I faced.

Let me expand on that by bringing up another point that  I made once about the multiverse.  I did a post where I said the multiverse was real in that every second of every day, we make choices.  Each of those choices lead to different paths... different universes that could happen.  Maybe sometimes, our specific choices put us in a world that is not right for us and changing those choices can improve our entire world around us by changing the universe in which we live?  Indeed, I hate to bring him up, as I think he is a dangerous fraud, but I heard a "laughing revivalist" one time decades ago, where people would "fall out" laughing as he spoke, say that the people that were on Jonah's ship in the bible were facing the storms out at sea not for anything they did but because they just happened to be on Jonah's boat, who was running away from God.  Those people were not even believers in that God, but they were not being punished til they happened upon the boat where God was judging one of his servants.  However, the point was... their lives were in struggle and not being blessed because of who they were around.

I can definitely attest to that in my life, but I think it is a good point to share.  Sometimes.... not always, because sometimes bad things just happen that has nothing to do with you ... happens to everyone.  But, if you keep running into pitfalls, maybe you should stop and think... am I on the wrong path?  If you are, maybe you are not in the universe that you should be, and you are not being blessed for simply not being where you CAN be blessed and not for anything you specifically did to deserve it.  

Something to consider.

Monday, March 4, 2024

A Couple Singles or a Dance

 One realization I had over the day is that as I look back over my past failed relationships in my life, I see mostly people that were happy being single... even if they were in a relationship as they lived it.  

I've seen this in dating circles a lot, too.. tho I'm hoping that's just a Florida hedonistic quality and not what I'll find elsewhere.  Many don't even want to be in a relationship.  I've posted statistics of how more women than men but a majority of both at middle age don't want to ever remarry.  Some even post how they want a two person income and to live alone, which I think might be a definite red flag for someone wanting a relationship.

Different people want different things, and there's definitely nothing wrong with staying single and living that way the rest of your life.  It's just not what I want.  If you bypass that question when dating, you can find yourself depending on emotional satisfaction from someone that was really just looking for things for themselves, and trust me... that doesn't end well.  

So, take the time to make sure what you want and seek others that want that too.  Do you want to be a couple singles, together, or two people in a couples dance the rest of your lives.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Lotus Flower Suckers

In mythology, they tell of the Lotus plant that " induces a dreamy forgetfulness and an unwillingness to depart." (Encyclopedia.com))and Odyssey depicts it as such..

"Those who did so were overcome by a blissful forgetfulness; they had to be dragged back to the ship and chained to the rowing-benches, or they would never have returned to their duties." - Britanica

I think this is a very relevant story to our time.  Recently, I listened to an audiobook called Dopamine Nation and have mentioned it in the past, how society is being geared to follow what feels good and how that inherently destroys us... as we seek satisfaction from things that become less and less satisfying, so we get more extreme and less reasoned.  It also has the effect of making us weaker in my opinion, because like eating of the Lotus we forget our purpose or goals in life and end up trying to blissfully forget the past, instead.

Change is hard, because it takes effort and drive, in spite of being unpleasant.  If we eat food that tastes sweet like sugar all the time, our bodies decay, but eating more vegetables and protein can build us up.  If we sit around and do nothing, our bodies decay and get pains, while an active life improves both.  You can work hard and have more money and less stress, or you can lay in bed and eventually have the power shut off for non payment.  Following what feels good is not always your best path.

I'm not saying that pleasure is bad, and I would suggest that sometimes it IS good to drink some wine or relax or do things that make you feel good.  But, that has to be in moderation and CANNOT become a substitute for growth and adaption for a life that is always changing.

I am getting older, but I am not dead, yet.  If I begin seeking the easy path and giving up on taking new goals or seeking a better way, I am already beginning my descent into the grave, and I would rather not do that till I am actually dead.  May we all LIVE until we enjoy our days in the present, always expecting a better day, tomorrow.... until there are no more tomorrows.  THAT is what it means to be alive.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Normally Abnormal

I thought I'd write down one of many things that I've had bouncing around in my head, as I decide what career I will follow upon my move to the Midwest. I picked up a delivery at a pizza place this afternoon, and the worker that made the pizza was so proud of his creation and his job. It got me to thinking, so I did a little research.

There is, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8.19 million people working in food preparation and serving in the US. By comparison, there are only 1.6 million accountants and auditors, only about 4.5 million elementary and secondary teachers, and so on. Got every "professional" job there's more working in support roles or ones that you actually SEE on a day to day life. Out of 161 million workers, only 70 million are in management or supervision positions, across all the industries including another million in the food service businesses.

My point is this. While we judge our career and success by our professional levels, there are more working in blue collar jobs than higher positions, which translated means it is normal to be working.. just a job.. to make ends meet, even if society deems that less than or inadequate.

Ten years from now, no one will even remember you in those professional jobs. I know... been there, done that. I used to handle 10 million dollars in reporting monthly for a business and once saved them 2 million dollars. Now... none even know I exist. So, who is better.. the man in the high tension "professional" job or the man that is very happy he cooked a perfect pizza?